Technology category, Page 11
With Musk’s X banned in Brazil, its users carve out new digital homes
RIO DE JANEIRO — As billionaire Elon Musk’s clash with a Brazilian Supreme Court justice came to a head last week, there were legal twists, insults, ultimatums, defiance and then, finally, capitulation. When the digital dust settled, X had become an ex. Musk’s social media platform was banned nationwide and...
Carnegie Mellon launches computer science podcast
Carnegie Mellon University has launched a new podcast to explore innovations in computer science. The first season of “Does Compute,” hosted by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, contains 10 episodes featuring experts, alumni and students. Some of the topics addressed tackle smartphones, medical breakthroughs and the challenges of artificial...
How do you know when AI is powerful enough to be dangerous? Regulators try to do the math
How do you know if an artificial intelligence system is so powerful that it poses a security danger and shouldn’t be unleashed without careful oversight? For regulators trying to put guardrails on AI, it’s mostly about the arithmetic. Specifically, an AI model trained on 10 to the 26th floating-point operations...
Inflation explained: It seems everything is more expensive than 5 years ago. Here’s why.
As she walked the aisles of Walmart in Frazer, Ashley Williams of Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood wanted to know the “mathematics behind” the rising cost of milk, eggs and other staples. Terry Riehle of Greensburg struggled to understand why Land O’Lakes cheese costs more per pound than most cuts of meat...
California advances landmark legislation to regulate large AI models
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Efforts in California to establish first-in-the-nation safety measures for the largest artificial intelligence systems cleared an important vote Wednesday that could pave the way for U.S. regulations on the technology evolving at warp speed. The proposal, aiming to reduce potential risks created by AI, would require companies...
What is Telegram and why was its CEO arrested in Paris?
Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris over the weekend over allegations that his platform is being used for illicit activity including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images. Durov, who was born in Russia, spent much of his...
How Nintendo nostalgia is driving a new wave of video game production in Pa.
This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Forty years after the cinder block-sized Nintendo Entertainment System introduced America’s youth to virtual duck hunting and Mushroom Kingdom plumbing, devotees...
Elon Musk’s Trump interview marred by technical glitches, Musk says it’s a malicious attack
Donald Trump recounted his assassination attempt in vivid detail and blamed the incident on “a lack of coordination” during a high-profile return to the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — a conversation that was plagued by technical glitches. “If I had not turned my head, I would not...
Software upgrades for Hyundai, Kia help cut theft rates, new HLDI research finds
Anti-theft software upgrades provided for Hyundai and Kia vehicles regularly targeted by thieves has cut theft rates by more than half, according to new research from the Highway Loss Data Institute. Theft rates of the affected automobiles soared after thieves discovered that certain car models lacked engine immobilizers, an anti-theft...
Disney’s streaming business is profitable for first time, but slowing U.S. park business ups anxiety
Disney returned to a profitable third quarter as its combined streaming business started making money for the first time, along with a very strong showing in theaters for the movie “Inside Out 2.” Operating income for the entertainment segment, which includes its movie studio and parts of its television wing,...
Russian disinformation slams Paris and amplifies Imane Khelif debate to undermine the Olympics
WASHINGTON — The actor in the viral music video denouncing the 2024 Olympics looks a lot like French President Emmanuel Macron. The images of rats, trash and the sewage, however, were dreamed up by artificial intelligence. Portraying Paris as a crime-ridden cesspool, the video mocking the Games spread quickly on...
Elon Musk’s X sues advertisers over alleged ‘massive advertiser boycott’ after Twitter takeover
WICHITA FALLS, Tex. — Elon Musk’s social media platform X has sued a group of advertisers, alleging that a “massive advertiser boycott” deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws. The company formerly known as Twitter filed the lawsuit Tuesday in a federal court in...
Officials: Elon Musk should stop his AI chatbot from sharing false election info about Pennsylvania, other states
Several secretaries of state, including Pennsylvania’s, have castigated Elon Musk for allowing false, AI-generated information about Vice President Kamala Harris’s ballot eligibility to spread on X. “As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to...
Google loses massive antitrust case over its search dominance
WASHINGTON — A judge on Monday ruled that Google’s ubiquitous search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation in a seismic decision that could shake up the internet and hobble one of the world’s best-known companies. The highly anticipated decision issued by U.S. District...
Schwab, Fidelity, other online trading brokerages appear to go dark during huge market sell-off
NEW YORK — Several online brokerage firms including Charles Schwab, Fidelity and Vanguard appeared to be down for thousands of users early Monday during one of the biggest stock markets sell-offs of 2024. User reports appeared to peak around and just before 10 a.m. ET, data from outage tracker Downdectector...
TikTok agrees to withdraw rewards feature after EU raised concerns about potential online addiction
FRANKFURT, Germany — TikTok has agreed to withdraw a rewards feature that raised concerns about its potential to encourage excessive screen time, particularly among children, the European Union’s executive commission said Monday. It was the first resolution of an investigation under the 27-country EU’s sweeping Digital Services Act, which went...
Myspace celebrates its 21st birthday. Do we still need it?
Happy 21st birthday to Myspace. On this day in 2003, the first social media platform was launched. It’s now a platform for music sharing. Even alongside the launch of Facebook, Myspace overtook Google and Yahoo Mail in 2006 — becoming America’s most visited website, according to Hitwise data, TechRadar reported....
Meta agrees to $1.4B settlement with Texas in privacy lawsuit over facial recognition
AUSTIN, Texas — Meta has agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used biometric data of users without their permission, officials said Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said the settlement is the largest secured by a single state....
A manipulated video shared by Musk mimics Harris’ voice, raising concerns about AI in politics
NEW YORK — A manipulated video that mimics the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she did not say is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence to mislead with Election Day about three months away. The video gained attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk shared it...
FCC pursues new rules for AI in political ads, but changes may not take effect before the election
NEW YORK — The Federal Communications Commission has advanced a proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads, though it is unclear whether new regulations may be in place before the November presidential election. The proposed rules announced Thursday...
NBA says it has entered deal with Amazon, not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s offer
The NBA said Wednesday that it is not accepting Warner Bros. Discovery’s $1.8 billion per year offer to continue its longtime relationship with the league and therefore has entered into a deal with Amazon Prime Video, a move that would mean this coming season would end a nearly four-decade run...
Crowdstrike blames update for letting bad data slip through causing global tech outage
Crowdstrike is blaming a bug in an update that allowed its cybersecurity systems to push bad data out to millions of customer computers, setting off last week’s global tech outage that grounded flights, took TV broadcasts off air and disrupted banks, hospitals and retailers. Crowdstrike also said it would take...
How college sports video games became the entry point to dismantle the NCAA’s amateurism rules
Sonny Vaccaro knew nothing about the law. He did know a lot about college sports and was sure the athletes who were driving millions of dollars in revenue to their schools should be paid. Michael Hausfeld knew nothing about college sports, but it didn’t take long for the attorney who...
U.S. investigating Delta’s flight cancellations and faltering response to global tech outage
U.S. regulators are investigating how Delta Air Lines is treating passengers affected by canceled and delayed flights as the airline struggles to recover from a global technology outage. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the Delta investigation on the X social media platform Tuesday “to ensure the airline is following the...
Google makes abrupt U-turn by dropping plan to remove ad-tracking cookies on Chrome browser
LONDON — Google is dropping plans to eliminate cookies from its Chrome web browser, making a sudden U-turn on four years of work to phase out a technology that helps businesses tracks users online. The company had been working on retiring third-party cookies, which are snippets of code that log...
